Starless Eyes Remain
by CherryMochax
Summary: The first few parts actually happened, but the whole meeting Gerard Way and My Chem didn't actually happen. I'm sorry, I just had to write this.


Melissa had been waiting for this day for as long as she could remember… well, ever since her lovely brother and amazing mother had gotten her the two My Chemical Romance concert tickets that were in her back pocket. And the whole day, she was just so excited for this to finally be happening. She'll never forget the day her brother gave her the tickets – the girl started crying and well, it was incredible. That had been the first time in a long time that she actually felt happy. And now, actually being there, waiting outside of the Hollywood Palladium to go inside and see her favorite band perform live! She seriously couldn't believe it. It almost felt like once she walked in, it would turn out to be a giant hoax or something. Knowing her brother, he was perfectly capable of doing that. Ever since she was a little kid, all Melissa could remember was her brother trying to choke her and hitting her and stuff. It was a cruel truth, but oh well. When you were only fifteen, you kind of _had_ to live with your family no matter what. Despite the fact that they really weren't all that great. Sometimes, it seemed like a better choice to live on the streets than having to live with your own flesh and blood. But that was just how Melissa felt about the whole thing. Though, maybe she shouldn't be so hard on them. After all, they _did_ get her My Chemical Romance concert tickets for her birthday.

All she really wanted at that moment was for the damn line to move! Doors didn't open until 7, and it was only 5. She had about two hours to just stand there awkwardly, with her older brother. And occasionally listen in on the conversation that the three kids behind her were having. From what she could make out, she really didn't like the girl that was with them. She was… kind of rude and mean. And the guys seemed soft spoken. Not to mention, the sun was really starting to get on her nerves. It was only May, but it was really hot. And wearing a black shirt and dark skinny jeans was not comfortable at all. She didn't mind, really. After all, she was about to see her favorite band perform. Melissa took the two tickets out of her pocket, and started reading at all the print on them. She honestly just couldn't believe that this was about to happen. It felt almost like a dream, but it felt realer than any dream she had ever had. For crying out loud, she was about to see My Chemical Romance! Melissa had been in love with the band ever since 5th grade. She had been labeled emo and all this other shit for liking them, but she didn't care. All that mattered was that the band meant something to her, and no one could ever change that.

After what seemed like forever, the line finally started moving. It seemed like a miracle – the venue wasn't very big (which made Melissa super happy) so there was a chance that she would be able to get up close to the stage. But the moving had stopped almost as suddenly as it had begun. From the other side of the building, Melissa heard a scream, and it made her heart drop to the floor. Ah, man! I knew we should've been here earlier, she thought to herself while looking up at her brother who seemed tired and annoyed and stuff. Oh well, he asked for it. She shrugged it off, and looked straight ahead, hoping that maybe the guys in the band would show up to sign autographs or something, but they were still a bit too far from the entrance to actually get to meet them. It sort of hit her life a knife, but she kept looking straight ahead, hoping that the familiar red set of hair would show up or something. After about ten minutes or so, she realized that it had been too good to be true. She _was_ just another fan, after all. To the band, she was just another kid who really liked their music and went to another one of their shows. The reality of the situation had actually hit her quite a while ago, but she was sort of in denial. She didn't want to be just another fan – she wanted to be something more. Someone that actually affected the band or that they would at least remember.

That had been something that Melissa had always wanted, but she kind of had to come to terms with things not really wanting to go her way. If she wanted to be something to the band, she'd have to go for a band related career, and that wasn't going to happen for a long time. Finally, the line started moving again. And she reached the front of the building which read, "KROQ PRESENTS MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. MAY 27/28. SOLD OUT!" it brought an almost warm feeling to her heart, knowing that this was actually going to happen. She took a deep breath, and then all of a sudden there was this dude trying to sell her tickets. "Oh, no thanks. We've had out tickets for six months!" she said, almost enjoying knowing how long she had had the tickets. The man just laughed, and went on to the next people in line, trying to sell his tickets. But from the curb, Melissa could now see the entrance. There was still quite a bit of space to cover until they got inside, but it was so going to be worth it. Half an hour later, they were half way there. And another twenty minutes later, and she was holding her ticket in her hand, and being patted down in case she wanted to sneak a bomb into the show.

Her brother had almost disappeared, and Melissa started to get worried. The girl line was shorter, which meant she got in before her brother. Now inside, Melissa was looking around, and she was starting to get a panic attack. She usually got like this when there was a lot of people around whom she didn't know or when she was forced to walk around by herself. After what seemed like forever, her brother finally appeared, and looked around. "Do you want anything?" he asked, walking straight to the bar. Melissa was staring at the merch store, which was covered by posters, shirts, bags, literally everything you could buy from the My Chem website, was right there. Luckily, she was smart enough to save some money for that night. Only a week before, the girl had gone to a Rammstein concert, but she didn't spent any money there because she expected her two brothers to buy her stuff. Technically the middle sibling had. The shirt he bought didn't fit him, so Melissa got to wear it for the whole concert. "Uh, no I'm fine." She said, with a small smile and followed her brother. "Hey can I have a Shock Top?" Shock Top was actually a pretty good beer because it didn't taste like beer – it tasted like oranges. And it was pretty damn good.

Once he got his drink, Melissa walked down the sort of hall thing where people were lining up to buy merch, and enter the bathrooms. She didn't know why, but people always seemed to be visiting public restrooms whenever possible. The two located where the stage was, and one could only image how excited the girl was when she noticed that there weren't any seats. It was basically open, which meant that Melissa was free to attack people and get to the front. There was already a few yards of people standing in the way of her and the stage, but that was fine. "Can we go to the front?" she asked, with a small smile plastered on her face. Her brother raised his eyebrows at her, "What? You wanna go to the front?" all she could do was really nod her head, in which he sort of laughed/scoffed. Melissa was just a bit bothered by her brother not wanting to go to the front with her, but oh well. If she left his side, this would probably be the last thing he would ever take her to. "Ugh, fine." The young girl sort of sighed, and stood there, taking pictures of the stage. Half an hour later, the first band finally came on. The air was beginning to thicken and become really hot. The next band came on, and Melissa was starting to make her way through the crowd. Her brother had warned her to not go too far ahead, and she really just ignored him. Next thing she knew, she was in the middle of the crowd, fighting her way to the front.

Melissa had never really heard of the bands, but they were…. Not really all that great. Besides, she hadn't come to watch those two bands. She came to watch fucking My Chemical Romance, okay?! Her body was already covered in sweat, and she was starting to regret wearing pants to a show. Not to mention her awesome shirt that had Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Frank on it that was covered in sweat. She was sure that the sweat wasn't hers. At least, most of it wasn't. Bodies from all around her were sweating, and it was getting all that harder to breath considering that there was about a thousand (or more) people breathing the same air, jumping, sweating, and all trying to get to the front by shoving and kicking and everything. Melissa was just about ready to pass out, and then this guy walked out in front of the crowd, and started throwing water at everyone. Melissa seemed like the first to stick her hand up and beg to be splashed with water. Luckily, the guy threw water at her and it cooled her down for what only seemed like a second. But man, that second was the best thing ever. Until, of course, she looked up at the stage and a head of red hair was up on the stage, walking around. And then there was a blonde, and then a short guy, and then the guy with giant curly hair. Everyone screamed, and Melissa felt her heart literally skip a beat.

There was this really, well, small girl. She was sort, and her build was skinny as fucking hell. She was crying, who the hell cried at a concert? Melissa could understand tears of happiness, but this girl just looked like someone had stabbed her in the stomach. Who knew, but all she could do was ask if the chick was okay. The girl replied with a nod, and so Melissa turned back to the stage where the wonderful and amazing band. She could feel her phone vibrating in her pocket – it was probably her best friend, Deborah, wanting to know how the show was going and everything. Oh well, the girl could wait until the show was over to hear about how amazingly amazing it was. The familiar techno opening for Planetary (Go!) came on, and the crowd was getting even rougher to fight. And Melissa, being Melissa and kind of really short, was having a hard time keeping up with them. She felt like the shortest person in the crowd, and well, it was getting really tough to look at the stage because there were like mountains in front of her. But as soon as "Get up and go!" kicked in, everyone in the crowd around her started jumping. The young girl wasn't really expecting it, so it sort of hit her as a shock, and she kind of really got mad at herself for not being taller. Soon enough, Melissa was jumping with the rest of them, but she was a tad off beat. After about ten jumps or something, she gave up and felt herself being lost in the crowd. She was beginning to lose herself, to lose track of everything around her. Now, she was in an endless sea of bodies all jumping rhythmically.

But the all too familiar music made her actually _get up and go_, because this was her very first My Chemical Romance concert, and who knew, it might even be her **only** My Chemical Romance concert. Her only chance to see them live. Once she reached the top of the endless sea, she looked up from what felt like her grave. Everyone was placed perfectly, (thank goodness for that) because at that moment, Gerard Way was right there. Only about a few yards from where she was. And the people down below where she was, they served as almost an aisle, leading up to the lead vocalist. Her heart stopped for what seemed like forever, because at that moment, he was looking down at her. Or at least, it seemed like he was looking directly at her. Maybe he was just looking in her general direction, but who the fuck cared? It felt real to her, and that was all that mattered. And at that same moment, something inside of her kind of caved and it sounded like glass shattering. It wasn't her heart, no. It was… everything in her life. From the day she became a fan, all she could do was see pictures and watch videos of the band – of the man. Something that she never thought she would feel came over her. Melissa realized, at that single moment, that he was actually a real person. Gerard Arthur Way wasn't just a bunch of pictures on the internet. He was a real _human being,_ with needs and wants… And someone there for him. That was actually the only thing that Melissa had wanted all of her life. Her brothers, they were about 14 years older than her. She grew up, almost by herself. Feeling alone never goes away.

Gerard had Lindsey, and Melissa was just a fan. She always refused to come to terms with it, but it was the truth. The godforsaken truth. Lindsey Ballato was seriously the last fucking thing on her mind because, this was Melissa's day. Not _Lindsey's_ day. That chick could have the rest of the year with Gerard, but today, today was Melissa Peña's day, and nothing and no one was going to ruin or change that. Looking up at the singer from where she was, Melissa sort of got lost and everyone around her disappeared. It was only Gerard and she in the entire arena, and that's all there was to it. But the people in front of her just had to cut in and ruin the moment. She was being sucked back into the vortex, but this time she just had to fight. Melissa had to be in the very front because maybe then, Gerard would look back at her again and he's finally know who she was. Well, at least for the moment being. He'd probably forget all about her in an hour, but that didn't matter. This was real to her, and it had been all she wanted for three years. She was there, caught in the moment, living life. This was the first time in a long time that she actually felt happy. But fighting with everyone around her, was really starting to tire her. "Oh yeah, pick on the shortest girl here. That's really fucking brave of you" was all she could manage to think. The people behind her were starting to push, and that was helping her make her way up to the front. There was now only about three people in her way, and then there she was. At the metal gate, separating the gate from the stage. And there _he_was.

Melissa stuck her hand up in the air, waving it around like a banner, trying to get his attention. But then someone stepped on her shoe, and they sort of dragged it off of her foot. That wasn't possible, was it? Apparently, it was. Her shoe was now lost at the bottom of the crowd. She felt around with her sock covered foot, and finally found her shoe, along with a sandal. Who wore sandals to a concert?! Trying to get her shoe back on without bending over (because really, that was impossible) the girl felt someone grabbing on to her hand. She was literally praying that it wasn't her older brother, gone to take her back. When she looked up, she wasn't greeted by her brother. She was greeted by red hair and an amazing cheeky smile and… those amazing hazel orbs that, well, she had fangirled over so many times. She was greeted by the one person who she had always imagined meeting and, you know, maybe fall in love with? That was just something that was more like a dream. A girl can dream, okay. Melissa's heart stopped for a second, and started beating as fast as it could. This was making her nervous, and all she could do was sing her heart out, knowing all the lyrics to the song. To every song. But the good ol' people behind her started pulling her away from the vocalist, and she was forced to let go. Even though she really didn't want to. It was a dream come true, and Deborah sure as hell wasn't going to believe this.

Everyone wanted a piece of Gerard, and Melissa had been lucky enough to hold his hand for a few brief seconds. This was a dream. A dream come true. If she was asleep, warm in her bed, then she never wanted to wake up. Melissa could live in this moment forever, and not give a damn because this is exactly where she would want to be. She lost her spot in the very front, and the air was actually too thick to breathe. The girl was now covered in sweat, and she was still sort of shaky, but she could hardly breathe. And she felt like she was taking a trip to the damn sun because man, it was so damn hot. Nothing could ever compare to this, not even the hottest summer day. She felt dizzy, almost like she was about to pass out of she closed her eyes long enough. The only time she had felt this way was when she ran a mile nonstop at her school with the track team. Never. Again. Never. Now her task was to fight her way back to the front, and that was impossible. It was like an impassible fortress that she couldn't get through, so she sort of gave up, and had to fight her way to the back of the crowd. Oh well, she got her moments, and she could cherish them for the rest of her life. Her oh so gallant brother was the first person she spotted once she got to the middle of the back. It was weird, he almost looked like he was looking for her and that he was afraid he had lost her.

My Chemical Romance hadn't even played ten songs, and Melissa was already beginning to feel dizzy. She literally couldn't close her eyes without almost passing out; she was actually starting to see stars. The harder she tried to wash away the feeling by jumping with the crowd, still standing with her brother, the more that the dizziness began to pull at her. It got to the point where she couldn't stand on her own feet anymore, and at that point she was looking at her brother in the most pathetic way possible. "Do you want to go get something to drink?" her brother asked, raising his voice loud enough to where she could hear it over the music. Melissa weakly nodded her head, and followed her brother back to the place where he had first gotten his beer when they had gotten inside of the Hollywood Palladium. The older sibling ordered another beer and a Gatorade… it was blue. He handed it to Melissa, and she quickly shared her gratitude by drinking it and placing it against her cheek. The room felt like it was on fire, despite that the air conditioners were probably on full blast. Melissa felt like the worst person in the world, really. Her first My Chemical Romance concert and she couldn't even stand up anymore. Luckily, across from the entrance to the actual arena, was a stair case. And the stair case had a wall attached to it – it looked like a nice velvety color.

Melissa's brother noticed her staring at it, and he quickly added, "Do you wanna go sit down?" she nodded her head, and went straight to the blessed wall. She couldn't really see the stage, but she could still hear the music, and that would have to be enough until she got some of her strength up. _Note to self: always remember to eat before a concert._ Most of this was probably due to the fact that she had been stupid and refused to eat anything because she was so excited about the concert. She got up early that morning, watched some television, and went on her computer to post about how amazing the night was going to be and everything. Not to mention that she listened to every single album, getting pumped before her brother got home from work to take her to the show. Most of the people that Melissa was texting at the time were probably getting loads of spam about how excited she was about the concert. Soon enough, it was three o'clock in the afternoon. Her brother had called to say that if she wasn't ready by five, then they wouldn't be going to the show at all. But Melissa _really_ wanted to go to the show, so she went to take a shower. Once out, she went to her room, put on her My Chemical Romance shirt (of the killjoy era, of course) a pair of skinny jeans, and her converse. Melissa combed her hair, and now all she could do was wait.

Soon enough, her brother got home, went to take a shower – which felt like utter torture because Melissa wanted to be the very first person there. Finally though, it was time. Her older brother came out of his room, and they both told their mother that they would be back later that evening. About an hour later, they were in front of the Hollywood Palladium, waiting in line and now, now, well, now Melissa was on the floor of the Hollywood Palladium ready to puke the nothingness in her stomach. When she looked up to her brother, he told her that there was a television screen above them. Melissa looked up, and what she saw was what she had been seeing on her computer screen for the past three years. My Chemical Romance performing. At the moment, the only thing she could do was feel so fucking bad for herself. She had been waiting six months for this day (three years and six months, really) and now that she was actually there, the girl was forcing herself to look at them from a screen. Nope, that just wasn't good enough for her. Melissa finished off the Gatorade, and her brother bought her a bottle of water. Soon enough, she finished that off too, which only upset her stomach even more, but it cooled her off enough to get her butt back into the arena.

Only this time, her brother basically ordered her to not go back into the crowd anymore. So she was supposed to stand in front of the entrance way, and watch My Chemical Romance from afar. Oh, well. It was probably for the best – she didn't want to lose her brother or anything; she didn't want to lose her ride home. Melissa's brother went to get another drink, and she took it as an advantage to go all crazy fan girl on everyone there. She was singing as loud as her voice allowed her to, and she was pretty much dancing by herself. It was fun, though. Who would have thought that dancing by yourself in an arena filled with strangers would be fun? The spot she was at was decent, except for the fact that sometimes the chick standing in front of her would suddenly grow about half a foot and that would block her view to the stage. Losing herself in the music, Melissa blocked out everyone between her and the band. She was singing and dancing like she would in front of a mirror back home. Nothing was different, except for that this was a _live_performance. Famous Last Words was the next song, and Melissa continued on with her trace life state, cheering on the band when the song finally ended. The young girl chanted along with the rest of the people in the crowd, "M-C-R M-C-R. M-C-R M-C-R." everyone was pumping their fists in the air, trying to get the guys to play another song. But by that time, Gerard had already bid them a farewell, and that was it.

The cheering died down, now only sounding like indistinct chatter among everyone. The lights slowly became brighter, and the whole place was illuminated. Melissa took in a deep breath, and looked at her brother with the smile of a complete fool on her face. She really needed to pee, but the first thing on her mind was buying something from the small merch stand near the exit. While walking to the exit, Melissa sort of cut the line and was ready to get what she wanted. She got a the "Young and Loaded" bag, along with a few Killjoy stickers. Now that she had gotten those things, the next thing on her agenda was to pay a small visit to the bathroom because she really needed to fucking pee. Melissa proceeded to tell her brother that she wanted to go to the bathroom, and they both went to find the bathroom. The line for the girls' restroom was obviously the one with the longest line, but that was okay. It gave her more time to take everything in and process just how amazing the whole experience of it had been. The line was moving really slowly, but soon enough she was inside of the restroom. She went to a stall, and her stomach began to hurt even more. When she was done, she went and washed her hands. Because that trip had take quite a while, many of the people were gone. Only a few people at the merch stand were still there.

Among the people who had left was Melissa's older brother. She was thinking that maybe he was just inside the men's' restroom, so she decided to wait for him. After all, how long did a guy usually take to take a leak? But the more she waited the more paranoid she was getting. Half an hour had passed, and now she was the only person in the hallway. The sudden realizing hit her that her brother had actually left here there. Alone. Melissa started to panic because she didn't know what the hell she was supposed to do. Her phone was almost dead, and if she called him… then it would just die. "Oh my god." Was the only thing she could manage to say. It was a cry for help. For anyone, really. Maybe someone who worked there would be nice and give her a ride home… or maybe they'd call a taxi for her. But if she had to walk home all the way from Hollywood… she's probably get raped or killed or something. So now you understand why she was really starting to freak out. Soon her phone began to buzz, and she answered it quickly, "Hey, I'm almost home." Said her brother. "Yeah, I can see that you fucking bastard. Get back here and pick me up, asshole!" "Hell no! I'm not driving all the way back to Hollywood to get you. Shit." With that, he hung up. Melissa pulled her phone away from her ear, and looked at the screen as it announced that the battery was dead, and she watched it shut down in horror.

By now, Melissa honestly had no fucking idea what she was supposed to do. After all, she was only fifteen years old, and, well… She couldn't really pay for a taxi. And she couldn't hitch hike without possibly getting picked up by some rapist or some human trafficker. So basically what this meant was that she was screwed all the way home. Holding her head in her hands, Melissa felt like utter shit. Her heart was drowning in the middle of the ocean somewhere, and she was probably going to be homeless for the rest of her life. She didn't really know how to get back to her sweet town of Hawaiian Gardens from Hollywood. "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me…" well, there wasn't any possible way that the situation could get any worse. Then again, little Melly Peña was notorious for having the worst luck possible. She felt someone's hand on her shoulder, which made her kind of whimper in surprise. To be even more surprised, it was the most unlikely person to ever _actually_ meet in person. That bright red hair and those amazing hazel hues were unmistakable. It was Gerard Arthur motherfucking Way. He was standing there, looking almost like an angel sent down from heaven, with that confused look on his face. He asked if she was alright, which made her bottom lip begin to quiver. "I… no, I…" struck with grief and surprise, Melissa couldn't find another word in her vocabulary.

Gerard helped her up to her feet, and bent down slightly, trying to make eye contact with her – because she was shortish – and tried to calm her down. "Hey, it's all right." He realized soon that she was… pretty young. "Are you here by yourself?" the questions just came pouring out of him. Most of it was that he didn't want anyone to get left behind like they had left behind Ray Toro so many times, but then the smaller part was that he didn't want to get sued for having an abandoned underage kid at a show. Melissa sighed, and cleared her throat enough to speak. "My brother left me here." Then it finally hit her that _Gerard Way_ was actually talking to her, and fucking touching her shoulder. It was like the message was finally getting through to her brain, which made her heart begin to pound in her ears. It was probably racing a mile a minute, so it kind of crashed and fell down to the pit of her stomach.


End file.
